Round 1
Kikuno marches straight forward and throws a bunch of right hands, tagging Nakamura and making him stumble over his own feet. Kikuno continues to walk into Nakamura, swarming with stiff punches, prompting the Kiyoshi Tamura disciple to drop for the takedown. Nakamura locks up a leg but before he can sink a foot lock, Kikuno pulls his leg out and stands. They're broken up by referee Moritaka Oshiro then. Kikuno agains walks forward, throwing punches as Nakamura tries to backpedal and flick counter jabs. Kikuno is landing most of the offense here, but his walking forward sees them quickly tied up. Kikuno gets the trip takedown to take top in half guard, where he drops a bunch of punches to Nakamura's head before the catch wrestler scrambles back to the feet.

Kikuno is just walking forward, hands at his sides, throwing punches. This makes him very easy to hit, and Nakamura does nail him with big right hands and knees to the face. Still, Nakamura's winging shots also see him careen into Kikuno in such a way that Kikuno need only collapse on him for the takedown to take top position. From on top in half, Kikuno drops a few punches and does his best to stay heavy and neutralize Nakamura's scramble attempts. Oshiro breaks them up, and again, Kikuno inexplicably chooses to walk right into fire while lobbing bolos of his own. He connects far less than he fires. He bowls Nakamura over again to take top in half guard. Kikuno harassing Nakamura with short punches for a minute until Oshiro breaks them up and gives Nakamura a yellow card for inactivity. Kikuno walks forward like a punching robot, again eating as many punches as his delivers. Nakamura dives for an armbar as the karateka crashes into him, but nothing comes of it. The round ends with Kikuno on top in half guard, both men apparently resting.

Round 2
A semblance of a stance returns to Kikuno this round, but the action still largely reflects what we saw in the first ten minutes. Kikuno lobs punches, Nakamura attempts to sway out of the way and counter with jabs and knees, and ultimately, they end up on the floor with Kikuno on top, dropping short punches. Nakamura also doesn't appear to mind being taken down very much either, despite the fact that he does very little from his back. During one of this expected ground exchanges, referee Oshiro stands both men up to give them yellow cards for inactivity. Its encouragement is questionable as they simply return to throwing winging punches on the feet. Kikuno pancakes a Nakamura takedown attempt and throws in a little variety with knees to the top of Nakamura's head. Kikuno spins around, transitioning to riding time position then, where he punches at the left side of Nakamura's head. Nakamura falls to his side and pulls Kikuno into half guard just before the bell.

Official scores: All three judges -- Hikaru Adachi, Masanori Ohashi and Akira Shoji -- see the bout for the winner by unanimous decision, Katsunori Kikuno.